Fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee today issued apology after his comments on 'women who can’t wear sari' drew flak. In a long open letter, the Kolkata-based designer said he was “sorry” and “regretted” using word “shame” to describe women who can’t drape a sari. It may be mentioned that Sabyasachi had told Indian students in Harvard Conference on Sunday that sari was part of Indian culture and those who can’t tie one need to be ashamed of themselves. He was asked to give his opinion on the cultural taboo of young women wearing saris. The designer faced a lot of backlash for the way he “denigrated” women over their choice.
Clarifying his remarks further, he wrote, “The ubiquity of negative sentiments associated with embracing sari in our culture triggered an unfortunate series of reactions on my part. Sometimes, when you are that invested in your craft, you become hypersensitive to the negativity surrounding that which you love.”
Taking full responsibility of his “misplaced” comments, he wrote “I unfortunately generalised Indian women. I should have framed my response as a call to stop shaming the sari and whoever chooses to wear it.”